Underground way or conduit



(No Model.)

S. WARNOLD 8v W. C. CRANMER.

UNDERGROUND WAY 0R GONDUIT. No. 366,195. Patented July 12, 1887.

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UNITED STATESv PATENT OFFICE.

SYDNEY WM. ARNOLD AND VILLIAM C. CRANMER, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA UNDERGROUND WAY R ooNoUlT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 366,195, dated July 12, 1887.

Application filed March 7, 1887. Serial No. 229,919. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern- Be it known that we, SYDNEY WM. ARNOLD,

a citizen of Great Britain, and WILLIAM C.

CRANMER, a citizen of the United States, both residing at Philadelphia,in the county ofPhiladelphia and State of` Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Underground Vays or Conduits; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying` drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specifica tion.

Our invention relates to underground ways or conduits for running lines of electric or other wires or pipes for the various purposes for which such wires or pipes are used-as, for instance, telegraph, telephone, electric light, signal, gas, dre.

- The object of the invention is to produce compact conduits which shall in the smallest amount of space carry the greatest number of wires or pipes and at the same time keep each one separate from every other. y

In carrying our invention into practice, we employ plates or sheets of metal or other suitable material,which are corrugated and placed alternately back to back, so that when a series of such plates are laid in a suitable channel or trough they shall present in crosssection a honey-comb appearance, and al1 the space occupied by said plates shall be available for laying wires, except along the edges, where partial pcckets or openings are made, which we prefer to till with pitch. The edges of cach two or pair of plates are bolted or riveted together, and may be taken up together or singly by removing said bolts or rivets. The corrugated plates are preferably laid in a case or trough ot! wood composed of planks or strips whose edges are Inortised together, and tierods are employed to rml y and securely unite the walls ofthe trough or case. These tie-rods are preferably set just inside of the side walls of the trough and are let into notches in the edges of the tinted or corrugated plates7 and serve to stiffen and hold said plates longitudio nally. The plates are also preferablylaid so as to break joints longitudinally, which will also serve to preserve their fixed longitudinal position and strengthen the structure, and in case the trough or case tends to settle at any 55 point will preserve the horizontal integrity of the conduit will be laid with the joints of the plates verticali y matched. The 'form or shape of the flutes or corrugations in the plates may be varied, the object being to produce a series of longitudi nal cells or passages separated from each other bythe walls of the iluted or corrugated plates without any useless 'thickness of body, as has heretofore been done where grooves have been made on both sides or a thick body of material. Therefore the corru gations may have tlat or rounded bottoms, and vertical, sloping, or curved sides, as may be desired, the purpose of our invention being fulfilled in any form where each or both sides of i the corrugations are employed or utilized in forming walls for separate passages or longitudinal cells.

'Iheinvention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description.

The accompanying drawings illustrate what we consider the best means for carrying our invention into practice.

Figure I is an end View of the conduit,show ing the trough or case and the tinted or corrugated plates ofthe form shown. Figs. Il and III are views of different or modified forms of 9o flutes oreorrugations Fig. IV is a side elevation of several pairs of plates, showing the manner of laying them to break jointslongitudinally. l

Similar letters of reference indicate corre sponding parts in all the gures where they occur.

A and A represent the Walls of the trough the walls A A project.

or case. lA are the bottoln and top portions or Walls, and A are the side portions or walls. These wallsare preferably united by extending the walls A A over or past the walls A' A and 'forming grooves in parts A A, into which the whole or a part of the thickness of The joints between parts A A and A' A may be pitched or otherwise cementedor made water-tight. Tie-rods AX AX are run from and through plates A A just inside of the walls or plates A' A', which serve to keep the parts of the trough rmly and reliably united and at the` same time perform an additional function by reason of their position inside of the side walls, which will presently appear. Bars or cross-platesaX aX may be provided below and above walls A A, as shown, through which the tie-rods pass. When these bars aX aX are used, it will be seen that a complete compress is formed for the case or trough, which will prevent the walls from splitting and warping.

B B are the luted or corrugated plates or sheets. These plates are formed vin such manner that they shall present half cells or passages on each side alternately, only divided by the thickness of the tinted or corrugated material; and they are laid together in such man ner as to make these half cells or passages match and form inclosed and separate cells or passages lying close to each other but entirely separated from each other by the fluted or corrugated walls of the plates. It will be obvious that great economy of space is secured by this arrangement and that the entire areaof the'troughmay be utilized except what is actually occupied by the thickness ofthe thin corrugated plates, and some partial cells or passages along the sides which we prefer to fill with pitch, so that a small conduit will afford capacity for laying a great number of wires, as none ef its area is occupied by needless thicknesses of division-walls or imperfect] y utilized space. The edges of each pair or couple of plates which meet, as shown at b, are united by rivets or bolts b, and the entire series are held longitudinally by having the tie-rods AX AX run through notches orindentations aXX inthe edges of the several plates.

Along the top and bottom of the trough or ease half Vcells or passages are necessarily formed, as are seen at c', while the full passages or cells marked C lie between and are v completely surrounded by the corrugated or uted plates. Both the full and the partial or half cells and passages may be utilized in laying wires. Along the sides of the case partial cells are also formed, which are preferably filled with pitch, as shown at c2.' This pitch not only tends to unite or bind the pairs of plates together, but also cements thejoint between the pairs of plates, which joint might otherwise admit moisture to the wires contained in the cells or passages formed between the backs of the two adjacent pairs of plates.

The corrugations or flutes in the plates may be angular, as shown in Figs. I and III, or curved, as shown in Fig. II. We have shown two shapes or forms of the angular construction-one with sloping sides, in Fig. I, and another with perpendicular and parallel sides, in Fig. III. From the changes of form thus illustrated it will be evident that the shape of the flutes or corrugations and the resulting shape of the cells or passages may be varied to any desired extent without departing from the scope of the invention. j

In laying the plates or sheets, we may lay them in regular vertical tiers, so that their ends shall match throughout the entire series; or we may lay them so as to break joints, as shown in Fig. IV; and we prefer this manner of laying them, as it serves to give strength to the structure and prevents sagging and relieves the strain upon, the trough or case. It will be understood, of course, that we' do not desire to be confined to the precise or approximate form ofthe trough'or case, as it is evident that any form may be used in which the plates may be laid.

- Having thus described our invention, what we claim,vand desire to secure by Letters Pateut, is

1. A conveyer or conduit for wires or pipes,

consisting of plates or sheets of metal or analogous material bent or struck upto form alternating corrugations on the opposite sides, so that the corrugations on each side shall form a portion of a cell the thin walls whereof divide it from a corresponding cell` partially formed by the next corrugation on the opposite side ofthe same plate, substantially as set forth.

2. A conveyer or conduit for wires or pipes,-`

consisting ofa series of plates orsheetsof metal or analogous material bent or struck up to form alternately corrugations on their opposite sides and united together in pairs, so that a series of cells shall be formed between each united pair and the united pairs laid back to back, so that a series of cells shall be formed between the backs of such united pairs when sYDNnY WM. ARNOLD. WILLIAM o. CRANMER.

for

Witnesses:

FREDK. J. LAMBERT, THoMns D, MoULDs. 

